Flight units with single-file seating that can be converted from a road vehicle have become known for instance with the subject of German Patent Disclosure DE 2357628 A1. There, a wing is attached in telescoping fashion to a motor wheel on both sides and is intended in conjunction with a tail assembly to create a flight unit.
The wings can be extended in telescoping fashion, to achieve the requisite lift capability of the flight unit created from them.
However, providing wings that can be extended in telescoping fashion on a road vehicle is practically possible to accomplish, because during flight they lack the requisite lift, and the longitudinal guidance and locking of the individual telescoping parts is so difficult that a functioning flight unit cannot be created from them.
Another disadvantage is that there is no coupling between the flight unit and a road vehicle, since the road vehicle can only be converted as a flight unit but cannot be coupled with it.
Attaching all the flying parts to the road vehicle of DE 2357628 A1, however, has the disadvantage that on the road, the road vehicle is difficult to maneuver and inconvenient to drive, and moreover it has a considerable weight, which makes use on the road difficult.
Moreover, neither the road vehicle nor the road vehicle that can be converted into a flight unit is protected by a cabin, so the driver sits entirely out in the open, both while driving and during flight. Hence accidents pose a considerable risk.
Nor does the aforementioned reference provide any technical teaching for how a flight drive mechanism should look, since in that road vehicle a flight mechanism is entirely lacking.
It must therefore be assumed that such a vehicle is not capable of flight, especially since the indications for how the individual flight control elements are disposed are lacking.
With the subject of German Patent Disclosure DE 101 59 082 A1, a vehicle with side-by-side seating has become known, which is also supposed to create a flight unit, which can be flown, out of a land vehicle with side-by-side seating.
A disadvantage of this arrangement, however, is again that the land vehicle can be converted into a flight unit only by attaching parts and redesigning them; that is, the land vehicle carries all the necessary parts for flight with it, and no coupling between the land vehicle and the flight unit is provided.
This is due to the fact that the same drive motor is used for both the road vehicle and the push propeller, and as a consequence, very little power is available for flying.
According to air traffic control regulations, it is furthermore questionable whether a drive motor designed for on-road operation can be used simultaneously as a flight motor, since for use as a flight motor, stringent demands for quality must be met, relatively brief maintenance intervals must be adhered to, and high-quality tests and overhauls are necessary, which are not necessary for a motor of a road vehicle.
With the subject of German Patent DE 197 49 647 C2, a motorized road vehicle with side-by-side seating, in the form of a bus or car, is disclosed, but a road vehicle with single-file seating in accordance with FIGS. 8 and 9 can also be provided, on which the wing and skid mechanisms are disposed in hinged fashion. Here again, there is the disadvantage that the road vehicle has to carry all the parts necessary for flight (wings, flight motor, horizontal stabilizer, rudder unit, and all the other control instruments) with it during on-road operation, which leads to an inadequate mode of operation during on-road operation.
The same criticism also applies to German Patent Disclosure DE 102 21 301 A1, which again discloses a road vehicle that is equipped with fold-up flying parts.